Ponyo on a Cliff (Hayao Miyazaki; 2008)

[PTAhole]

Nothing is known. He is hard at work, and it should be done by summer '08.

[ie]

Nothing, huh?

Anyways, the guy's like all four members of KISS rolled into one. Breaking up? How about a reunion tour? Didn't he do this whole "quitting" thing a few years before giving the world the world the gift of Spirited Away?

2008 is too damn long away.

[PTAhole]

Every news source says that nothing is known about the film. I Lost My Little Boy is a film that he's always talked about, but he said nothing about this being that. Wikepedia is often wrong, you know.

[ie]

Um, yes, I do know. It basically works like this: In the event that Wikipedia is alone in the information it presents, and so long as the information does not look tampered (this realese suxx0rd!!!!11), then it can be somewhat reliable. But when another source brings up contradictory information (starting at a published or .gov/.edu website being the most reliable, and going down to the .coms and the Geocities websites), then you go with the non-Wikipedia information.

(Presenting that information not to further the argument, but to explain how reliable of a source Wikipedia can be.)



In any event, should be a good release, even if it's too far in the future.


Perhaps you should post some of those news sources.

[PTAhole]

Go to any movie news site. Search for Miyazaki. You will find it. There is nothing known.

[PTAhole]

September 30, 2006 Production on Studio Ghibli's Next Film
According to the production diary of September 26, the storyboards from Miyazaki's next film are watercolors. They're printed with a color copier and distributed to the main staff as special editions. The diary says, "Even we have not seen a colored storyboard very much. Of course it is the first time in Ghibli films".

The September 27 diary mentions that the expression method of the film is ambitious. Since the staff have to confirm the processing method of every cut, production is hard. Therefore, it is very difficult to manage the production period.

According to the production diary of September 29, animation production begins in next week.

If this film will be released in summer 2008, production term is about 20 months.
This is longer than Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.
Suzuki mentioned in his interview, "It hasn't changed that we release a film every 2 years".

The titles of Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle were announced before animation production began, but the title of the next film will probably not be announced until December.

Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.

Source: Nausicaa.Net (a MUCH more reliable source than Wikipedia.)

So, there are some production details, but no story details, and the like. Not saying the Wiki you linked is wrong. Miyazaki DOES have plans to make that film, but there are no reliable sources to indicate that that is what he is working on.

Yeah, Miyazaki has pulling this retirement crap since before Princess Mononoke came out. A lot of people believed it, too. Pretty much every movie he does now is threatened to be his last. My opinion: He's not retiring till he's dead. He'll always have a story he wants to tell. IF he ever did retire, I'd cry, because I personally think he is the best filmmaker working today. Animation or not.

[ie]

Why look up anything when you can get someone else to do it for you?

Thanks for the information, though.


That's reasonable and I agree about the retirement business. Like I said, Miyazaki is all four members of KISS rolled into one.

[criterionmaster]

I love Miyazaki and have yet to experience any of his films in the theater, so maybe this one will be the first. His films are so beautiful in everyway, so I think they will be even more stunning in the cinema. I look forward to more information when it becomes available.

[criterionmaster]

I didn't know where else to post this, but I just read it over the net:

"Aint that the truth. The credibility of Wikipedia was recently researched in an English paper, and the conclusion was that there was an average of five (5) mistakes in every article. Also contrary to popular belief almost no professional scholars attribute to the site. Since most of the content is provided by students and by people who take an interest in a specific topic (without necessarily being educated in it) and since these people function as their own editors, Wikipedia is pretty much unusable as a serious research tool. It can provide an overview and point you in other directions, but one should never trust an article on Wikipedia blindly."

[ie]

The five mistakes per article might be a little bit extreme. (If only because some of the featured articles may contain less mistakes, while the more obscure articles may contain tens of thousands of mistakes, leading to an average of about five per article.)

But yeah, that is definitely reasonable. I did cite Wikipedia for all of my college-level Biology papers, but I didn't really need anything too scientific, so...

criterionmaster said:

I love Miyazaki and have yet to experience any of his films in the theater, so maybe this one will be the first. His films are so beautiful in everyway, so I think they will be even more stunning in the cinema. I look forward to more information when it becomes available.

I also agree with this statement.

[PTAhole]

Shitload of news on this, all courtesy of GhibliWorld.com.

19th of March, HAYAO MIYAZAKI’S NEW FILM FINALLY ANNOUCED: Great news straight from Japan! During today’s episode of “NNN News” Japanese film distributor Toho officially announced the new film of world renown master animation director Hayao Miyazaki. The film, which is titled "Gake no ue no Ponyo" (Ponyo On A Cliff), is to be released in the summer of 2008. What’s interesting is that Hayao Miyazaki has written a story which revolves around a 5 year old boy Sosuke and the Princess goldfish Ponyo who wants to become human. Goro Miyazaki (Hayao's son) of when he was 5 years old has been chosen as the model for the main character Sosuke and important subjects of Miyazaki’s new film are things like "father", "mother" and "cliff". In addition Studio Ghibli President Toshio Suzuki mentioned "Almost 70 to 80% of the film takes stage on sea. It will be a director’s challenge on how they will express the sea and its waves with freehand drawing."

In the past Miyazaki tried to retire, but it has seemed unbearable for him. Like Studio Ghibli President & Producer Toshio Suzuki once insisted in 2005 "He's good for another ten years at least and has no plans to retire." After his last film “Howl’s Moving Castle” from 2004, it was a mystery what the genius would do next for a long time, but it was clear to all that he wouldn’t sit still. Like the six legged spider spirit Kamaji from his Academy Award Winner “Spirited Away”, the notorious perfectionist and workaholic Miyazaki worked on various projects. Besides making three new animation shorts, which are limited only for screening at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, he made a 23 pages full color manga for the Japanese translation of Robert Westall’s "Blackham's Wimpey". Miyazaki even got involved in designing an enormous copper clock of 10 meters high and 18 meters wide for the NTV tower at Shiodome, Tokyo. His reason for making this Howl’s Moving Castle type of clock: "As time passes, the characters of the animation will be forgotten. Therefore I want to make something that will be loved by future generations as well." Of course, all of these projects resulted in great pieces of art, but everybody was curious about a new full length feature. Would Miyazaki direct another one?

In April 2005 rumors from Chinese media began to appear online that Miyazaki’s next big project “would” be based on a Chinese book called "Wo Diushile Wode Xiaonanhai" (I Lost My Little Boy). It was never officially confirmed… In the mean time, in the summer of 2007 his son Goro Miyazaki completely unexpectedly made his director’s debut with Studio Ghibli’s “Gedo Senki”, based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea novels. Miyazaki senior was fiercely against his son directing and though the film was also criticized, it ended up being quite a success. “Gedo Senki” wrote the 2006 box office record for Japanese film, got the 3rd in Japan’s overall box office and Studio Ghibli's President Toshio Suzuki assured Goro Miyazaki will direct another film in the future. With this bit of rivalry Hayao Miyazaki must surely be even more eager to produce another great animation film!

This eagerness has already showed in a couple of things. In an interview from last year, Studio Ghibli President Toshio Suzuki mentioned “Walt Disney wanted to make a character exceeding Mickey Mouse, but was unable in creating it. Miyazaki can't make a character that exceeds Totoro as well, but when I told him this he became angry and said: I’ll do it!”.” All of this became a bit more concrete in the spring of 2006. For the very first time Miyazaki told a bit about "Gake no ue no Ponyo" during the NEWS23 program of May 5th. He talked about his mental attitude for making it, which was all very abstract, but it was typical that all of this was done on May 5th. In Japan May 5th is known as the holiday “Children’s Day” and Miyazaki’s "Gake no ue no Ponyo" just happens to be a “Kodomo Mono”, which is Japanese for “children's story”.

Location hunting for "Gake no ue no Ponyo" already started in July 2006 when members of the Ghibli staff went location hunting near Kobe, and joined Miyazaki-san who came earlier. The storyboard of his new film is painted in watercolor, which is quite a rarity in the animation scene, "Even the Studio Ghibli staff have not seen a colored storyboard very often.” Besides, Miyazaki draws the storyboard all by himself while making the film, which is a big difference compared to western animation films. As usual, his Ekonte (storyboard) will form the base of the production which began early October 2006. If the film will be released in summer 2008, the production term will be about 20 months, which is significantly longer than Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. Miyazaki’s ambitions for "Gake no ue no Ponyo" seem to be very promising and there will be many who can’t wait to see it on the big screen. Gambare, Miyazaki-san!

(2nd update!) 19th of March, FIRST PICTURE OF MIYAZAKI'S NEW FILM: In addition to the great news of today, the announcement of Hayao Miyazaki's new film "Gake no ue no Ponyo", we wanted to add a little more. In this case it's a screenshot from “NNN News”, the program in which today Miyazaki's film was officially announced. It shows Studio Ghibli President Toshio Suzuki and a picture from "Gake no ue no Ponyo". Though it's a picture showing only Sosuke's hand holding a bucket with goldfish princess Ponyo inside it, it's still the first picture.

Also, Studio Ghibli now also posted the announcement of Miyazaki’s new film on their own website. As to be expected it confirms the soundtrack will be made by Joe Hisaishi.



24th of March, GAKE NO UE NO PONYO PLAGIARISM GOSSIP: Normally, we bring you the latest Studio Ghibli news straight from Japan. In some rare cases we include the latest Japanese Ghibli gossip as well. This is one of those cases. There’s only one problem with gossip… It consists of casual or idle talk, sometimes slanderous and devoted to discussing others and has a reputation for the introduction of errors and other variations into the information thus transmitted. Therefore the following is very highly doubted to be true and needs to be taken with a large grain of NaCl, but the discussion about it is interesting anyway.

If you’re only just the least bit into Studio Ghibli films then we don’t need to tell you about this week’s announcement of Hayao Miyazaki’s new film "Gake no ue no Ponyo". This time Miyazaki will tell a story drawn freely in watercolors and pastels about a 5 year old boy Sosuke and the princess goldfish Ponyo who wants to become human which of course will promise much good! An extra interesting thing is that the Goro Miyazaki (Hayao's son) of when he was 5 years old has been chosen as the model for the main character Sosuke, which is interesting because in the summer of 2007 Goro Miyazaki made his director’s debut with Studio Ghibli’s “Gedo Senki” and Miyazaki senior was fiercely against it.

Like Nausicaa.net mentioned this week: "According to Toshio Suzuki, Hayao Miyazaki reflected seriously about his relationship with his son Goro. The elder Miyazaki thinks Goro's debut as a director is a "resistance" to him and was caused because he was busy and did not care about Goro when he was a child. So, the 5 year old Goro became the model for Sosuke. A sense of closeness between a parent and child is also a theme for the film. Needless to say, with all these things to talk about it’s not that strange that the news about Miyazaki’s new film is already widely spread over the internet."

With there being a lot to talk about the master animation director’s new project, it’s unavoidable of people talking negatively as well. In this case the “latest gossip from Japan” is Miyazaki being accused of plagiarizing works of Yasuhiro Nakura. Nakura is an animation artist who worked on various projects, like Laputa: Castle in the Sky (key animator), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (key animator), Metropolis (character design, chief animation director and key animation) and Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (associate animation director). He also wrote a book called "The world of Nakura Yasuhiro" and this is what the rumor’s about. On 2 Channel, one of the largest message boards in the world and the most popular website in Japan, posters are talking about this nowhere confirmed gossip from various points of view. One of those views is people claiming Miyazaki is plagiarizing, others say that there exists evidence that Studio Ghibli bought Nakura's book "The world of Nakura Yasuhiro" and that they might have referred to it. Miyazaki supposedly “got too old”. Others say it’s just coincidence and that the idea of gold-fish-princess is common. Even the original poster himself thought of this. In addition it is said Nakura himself plagiarized his idea from Ogiiwa Mutsumi's manga "The gold-fish-princess in wonder land" and "Merumo in pointed hat" from Ogiiwa's "Fairy tale of Ginyoubi".

In that case "Finding Nemo" and "Seaman" (a virtual pet video game for the Sega Dreamcast) would be similar to Nakura's idea or Ponyo as well... Disney's "Lion King" is also very similar to Tezuka's "Jungle Emperor Leo" in its concept and story. When "Lion King" was released many Japanese felt the story was stolen from Tezuka, but afterwards everybody knew they’re different. If on the moment “Ponyo” had to be compared, then the “closest” it would probably come to would be Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.

Anyway, Miyazaki’s "Gake no ue no Ponyo" is still far from being released, so it’s too simpleminded to accuse Miyazaki of plagiarism. It spreads misinformation and purportedly true information circulates without substantiating evidence. Studio Ghibli usually makes it clear that their film is based on an original story if it exists. They have enough money to pay for it and wouldn’t have to take a risk. We’ll have to wait till the summer of 2008 arrives and “Ponyo” will be released. Only then can be judged who was right or wrong. Though this gossip was nowhere confirmed, I thought it was interesting enough to share. One thing people can be sure of: "Gake no ue no Ponyo" will be a great hit!

[ie]

Posted a summary of that news article last week, actually. Different thread, but oh well.

ie said:

I haven't been able to check out any of these yet, but I doubt I'll have to "test" to see if I'll like any of Miyazaki's work, so I should be fine.


Here's some Miyazaki news. I couldn't find that Untitled Miyazaki thread, so here goes:

Hayao Miyazaki's new movie title is revealed

Ponyo On A Cliff
For purists, that's Gake no ue no Ponyo, who would already know how to pronounce it, but here it is anyways:
gah-keh no oo-eh no poh-n-yo.

Not much information on the movie has surfaced besides the GhibliWorld website, and Google only occasionally gives ten results to the title, but at least it isn't Wikipedia, huh?

Also, the tentative release date is Summer 2008.

Sumer 2008, Miyazaki's bringing the heat. ;D ;D

[PTAhole]

Bah! You barely scratched the surface. Still, can't wait.

[PTAhole]

Some new(ish) images from GhibliWorld.com...







I like what I see. In case you were wondering, for the first time since Porco Rosso in 1992, Miyazaki is using absolutely no CG in this film, so that makes me even more excited.